My name is Justine Curran and I am just an average girl from Sydney, Australia. I grew up in Western Sydney suburbia mainly, but moved around a lot raised by my single mum. Some of my favorite childhood memories is looking back at all the adventurous things I was able to experience. I spent all summers horse riding with my cousins, crashed a few motorbikes and fell off my horse so many times, instinctively learning how to land on my feet.

I am usually an open book. I don’t hide anything from anyone. I love talking. And honesty; I’ve been known to tell it like it is. Music moves me and what I listen to depends on my mood at any given time. If I am stressed and sad I  listen to something calming. I love a song with a good beat to lift me up. What’s on my playlist right now? Daughter – Youth, La Mar – The Beautiful Girls, Forest Fire – James Blake, What Lovers Do – Maroon 5, 7 years – Lukas Graham.

I’m usually the first one out of bed in the morning, unless my toddler wakes me. I like sleeping in, but not so much now, as I usually look forward to the new day. If a morning moves slowly I feel restless. Make-up isn’t something I use every day, but I do enjoy using it when I want to feel good about myself – otherwise I have no time for that.

Small moments of quality time make up a larger picture, in my opinion anyway. Spending small amounts of quality time with someone to feel connected are important. I am quite passionate about teaching this to my children. Who need to learn that things are just never given to us – dreams, careers, relationships. They all take time and effort, which means  taking one step at a time rather than expecting we are entitled to it.

I have always been drawn to a powerful image. A story. I had never connected with fine art and portraiture, but as I grew up I found myself staring at images produced by Annie Leibovitz.  In my adolescence I found myself dabbling in building photography, taking random pictures of things that interested me. My travels too. All documentary. I pursued a life in graphic design and illustration because at the time, I really enjoyed illustration and thought advertising might be my best career move.

When I had my daughter at the age of 21 – I was obsessed. I wanted to capture all of her moments. I wanted her to know what an awesome little person she was growing up and how loved she was. We all show our kids how we love them in many ways, through affection, words. My photos were just another way of giving her positive affirmations. I found it really difficult to get a job. My husband’s job is demanding and inflexible. Plus I was not ready to work 9 – 5. I wanted to maintain a career and strived to find a way to make that happen. Seven years later I am happy to say that my business has become successful. I work when I want to. I am present for school duties and home 80% of the time with my 2-year-old son, who only needs 2 days of daycare a week.

I feel like I spent a good four years learning new skills and developing my art and style. I noticed what fired my soul was producing work that I loved to produce for myself. Showing families how wonderful their life is, capturing moments of a glorious childhood that can be revisited. Affirming positive messages of self-identity and tribe. It’s taken years of refining and who knows where my heart will go in the future.

I wouldn’t say I have a favorite genre, I enjoy anything that is captivating and tells a story, and this crosses all art forms and sub-genres. I feel like there are a lot of photographers who feel they need to be patriotic or ‘true’ to a genre and have forgotten that it is all subjective in the meaning of creating art.

I actually love boudoir, that would be my guilty pleasure. I wish I would make time to create something with some girls.

My style in 3 words? Life in all its glory. Sorry that’s 5 (ha-ha!) That’s all your getting from me.

Its already March and I don’t have a clear goal yet (ha-ha). Seriously though, I am just trying to figure out how I can share my love for life with other people, so developing my products and client experience are number one priority for me.